When Did School Teachers Become The Enemy?

Over a year ago

by Kris Broughton

If families who make $250,000 a year are not considered to be rich, then how the hell can a teacher who makes less than $60,000 a year to educate our nation’s children be overpaid? You would think, the way some of the state legislators in Michigan are acting these days, that public school teacher unions have replaced Al Qaeda on the nation’s most wanted list.

As part of a significant education reform package sponsored by Senator Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair), schools could privatize their instructional services, giving district a way to avoid the perceived high-dollar packages pushed by the teacher unions.

"I look at it as offering options," Pavlov said. "If there is something out there that can offer school officials the same options at a lower cost, schools need to take a look at that. It needs to part of the conversation on reform."

Pavlov said he's still ironing out the details on the language of a bill, but it is slated to be part of a package that also includes lifting the cap on state university-chartered public academies and creating a mandatory school of choice program for the state.

The privatization piece would require teachers from a private firm to have all of the same qualifications as current instructors. The difference would be that school districts could take bids for instructional services once an existing contract expires.

A school teacher is not a fry cook. A school teacher is not a customer service representative. A school teacher is a highly trained professional who literally holds the future of our nation in their hands. The blogger whose link caught my eye this morning does a better, and much less profane job of expressing his displeasure than I am capable of right now, so I will give them the honor of having the last word on this today.

Maybe what we can do is hire teachers in China or India to telecommute into our classrooms. Then we just hire some tough guys at minimum wage to control the kids in the room and maintain the proper “decorum” for “learning”. I hear there are a lot of unemployed “union thugs” they could hire.

Big Think Edge helps organizations by catalyzing conversation around the topics most critical to 21st century business success. Led by the world’s foremost experts, our dynamic learning programs are short-form, mobile, and immediately actionable.